The invention relates to a rifled weapon barrel having a chamber at its breech and a method of making a rifled weapon barrel.
To maintain barrel erosion caused by the hot propellant gases at a low level to thus increase the life expectancy of the barrel, it is known to provide the inside of the barrel--usually made of steel--with a hard-metal layer such as a chromium layer or an alloy layer containing chromium (such as a cobalt-chromium-tungsten alloy).
It has been found in practice that particularly in large-caliber barrels (artillery pieces, tank cannons and the like) in the muzzle region of the barrel a relatively more pronounced surface wear occurs, caused by the friction between the projectile and the barrel. The resulting damages to the hard-metal layer of the barrel cause an engraving of the land profile of the barrel rifling into the projectile whereby the flight attitude of the projectiles fired from such a gun is unintentionally affected.
German Offenlegungsschrift (application published without examination) U.S. Pat. No. 2,045,738 and U.S. Pat. No. 2,395,044 disclose weapon barrels which are provided with a hard-metal layer only in the chamber zone and in the barrel region immediately adjoining such chamber zone because it is primarily such a barrel region that is exposed to erosion due to the hot propellant gases.
Particularly in the muzzle zone, that is, in the frontal barrel half, such known weapon barrels too, involve problems such as land surface wear, groove and land surface engraving on the projectile and the like due to the friction between the projectile and the barrel.